Leamington Spa to Stratford upon Avon

We left Leamington Spa on Friday heading west towards the Hatton Flight.  We usually moor at the bottom of the flight but this time we went up the first 4 locks where we could stop in a long pound. The next morning we were up bright and early with the bike ready for the remaining 17 locks.  The sun was shining but rain clouds were gathering and we were pleased to be through Hatton Top Lock 2 hours later.  

British Waterways buildings and a lock viewed from the previous lock on the Hatton Flight 

We sailed further on to the embankment at Rowington and stopped before the rain started.   We then stayed another day before sailing to Kingswood Junction ready for the Stratford Canal.  Kev had unfortunately dropped the binoculars resulting in magnified double vision. He found a replacement pair on ebay, click and collect to Argos was available so he ordered them to be delivered to Stratford.  It was only after receiving the confirmation we discovered they were going to be sent to a previous delivery address in Yorkshire.  The seller was very helpful and cancelled the order so we could start again and this time we changed the default address to Mum and Dad's in case the Argos delivery request failed again.  Lucky that we did because once again the Argos delivery information was lost.   Later we discovered the cause of the problem was Kev's ancient tablet which is losing it's touch screen sensitivity.  

On Tuesday morning we started descending the narrow locks on the Stratford Canal; some of the bridges are also very narrow. 

One of the narrow bridges, just wide enough for a narrow boat

We stopped outside Wotten Wawen on Wednesday and the low banks made it ideal for painting Brent III's gunwhales.  We were pleased with our work over the next 3 days but needed some provisions.  The poor telephone signal ruled out an Asda delivery so we caught a bus into Stratford upon Avon.  The bus taking us into town was 10 minutes late but that was nothing compared to the journey home.  After standing for 30 minutes in pouring rain at an open bus stop we vowed not to rely on buses again.

The next day the weather was bright and sunny and we sailed over the small Wootten Wawen aqueduct and stopped about a mile further on.

The Wootten Wawen aqueduct with visitor moorings on the left and the green Anglo-Welsh hire boats on the right

We'd stopped just  before the Edstone Aqueduct so I was able to take some photos of the structure from the ground. 

Brick pillars support the narrow Edstone aqueduct 

On Monday we sailed over the aqueduct giving us a different view. 

The view from the bow as we sailed over the Edstone Aqueduct 

The canal took us through Wilmcote village and down the 11 Wilmcote Locks before we stopped for the day. 

Canalside buildings at Wilmcote

On Tuesday we had 5 locks to descend to take us  into Stratford upon Avon including the notorious Lock 53.  Due to it's proximity to a bridge the balance beam has been removed and replaced with railings at right angles to the lock gate which makes it difficult to open. 

The railing replaces the balance beam on lock 53 and Kev replaced me on lock duty!

We pulled into the basin at Stratford and the sun came out to give us another heatwave.  Bess has become accustomed to stretching out on the towpath and thought nothing of doing the same on the pavement in front of the memorial steps. 

Bess laid out on the pavement

Our journey from Leamington Spa to Stratford upon Avon